Materia sacra. Giacomo Manzù per la Porta della Morte, nuove prospettive d'indagine

The "Porta della Morte" for St. Peter's Basilica is among Giacomo Manzù's most important works. The sculptor worked intensively on the project from 1952 until 1964, when it was inaugurated. Numerous significant critical studies on the door have so far primarly focused on aspects related to its monumental history, with particular attention to its iconography. Equally important are the events related to the material realization. Between 1953 and 1961, Manzù and the foundries he relied on, M.A.F. and Fonderia Artistica Battaglia, experimented with four different types of bronze alloy to achieve a sufficiently fluid metal during the casting process. The last of the four versions, the definitive one, was studied at the request of the Artist bu the Istituto Sperimentale dei Metalli Leggeri. Through the archival documentation, it clearly emerges the care and attention of Manzù towards the aspects concerning the realization of such demanding work, also aim to emphasize how an investigation of this kind, which takes into account less analyzed elements in the historical-artistic field, can bring to the light entirely new aspetcs of the history of monuments.